Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-31
DECORATION DAY LINES.
The Dead Who DIED for the Union.

| dedicated to the Grand Army OF the Republic
BY MAJOR HARRY MACNAMARA.
We are often asked by friends to tell
| Of the glorious scenes of the olden time,
OF brilliant battles fought and won,
In our youthful days or golden prime.
OF bivouac scenes and charges made;
OF madening cheers when the enemy fed
Or. of tears that dimed the soldiers eyes,
AS he knealt beside the dying or dead!
Of gallant hearts whose hands we clasped
In the early, grey, sweet morning light,
Whose dying cheers rang in our ears
Ere the battle closed in the gloom OF night
Of men once strong as Hercules
Who feared not bomb or steel or lead,
Who like proud gods of battle fought,
Nor ceased to fight till they were dead.
How weirdly, sometimes, came the though
| OF lov'd and dear ones far away;
OF one sweet face with sorrow fraught,
Reading the list of the dead next day.
How flashing eyes would glance above,
As cannon DER the field they d drag,
! To get one GLIMPSE of the stars and stripes,
| One last look at the dear old flag
1t pains one, boys, to talk of this
| For the face of many comrade dear
| Comes from the graves OF far OIL helds,
| While only the wrecks of the past are here
| S>AN
strong
| Mighty to cheer and fight and save:
Glorious, gallant medafd wrecks
OF the proud American soldier brave.
See yonder face now worn and thin,
| And wonder form that's bent and low;
See proud old Tom with his hair so grey
| God! How they'd once engage foe
| knew We all when straight and strong
Isaw We all in camp and fray
Your arms were iron, your hair was brown
And now you're broken and worn grey.
BOYS, we've seen columns long and deep
| March DER the plain and up the hill!
| All clear the sky above our heads,
And, save the march, the scene was still;
A low, dark line was in the front,
From which there came no sign or sound
But as the column was pushed ahead
A roar came forth that shook the ground
The salute was hot and fierce as hell
The column paused for moment, then
1t changed its front and leaped the works,
And drove the rebels from their den!
But what was left of the charging lines
That on had been so grandly led:
Bloody and broken around the works
They lay in mounds and heaps Of dead!
Mid caissons, cannon, broken guns
In trenches, bloody, wide and deep
The brave men of that legion lay
Wrap'd in the soldiers final sleep.
< x
So countless heroes died-for what?
And thousands live who went to die
These braves they marched to save the flag,
Nor did they ask the reason why;
They knew is was the dear old flag
Its folds alive with warlike story
They knew it was the ponnie blue,
Ali ablaze with well won glory!
They knew that traitor hands would tear
1t down from off its masthead high,
And that was all they cared to know,
And why they went forth to die
Proudly still old glory waved
Ger the living and Ger the dead,
Ger the green of million graves
The flag and the fallen firmly we'd
Oh, we well remember wounded men
Begrimed with powder, pierced with pain,
About whom bullets fiercely fell
In Kissing, merciless, steady rain
Of shallow graves, wherein we cast
The corpses once SO proud and strong
OF men who but an hour before,
Were voicing high battle song.
Of soldiers trampled under foot,
OF charging horse and furious men,
Of belching cannon. mad'ning yells
In demon battle there and then
Of water red with horses blood,
OF blasted trees and sodCen grass,
All, many time our gallant men.
Leonidas-like had held the pass!
Brave men the world will ever love:
But Drawer men than these OF ours,
In battle fierce did never fall,
Nor sleep beneath the friendly flowers.
On mettle grander than our dead
The sun nor stars will ever shine;
A glorious and mighty host
As ever stood in battle brie.
An in their graves they're mighty still
For well they taught the world to know
That to strike the starry flag is death
And it matters not who is the foe.
The woes and sorrows of war are past,
And the rainbow peace illumeries the sky;
Twas a glorious cause and holy one
An immortal cause for which to die,
Will the Nation remember her sons who fell,
In the distant years that are yet to come,
And the glorious years in which thew ivd-
The martial days of the fife to drum!
Will she keep her soldier memories green,
The living alike with the dead so dear,
Or, glory forgetting with the passage OF
time,
and sere!
The crippled, the shattered, the war-wOrn
The wrecks of the war that round us now
stand;
Oh. will she remember, in the future TO
come,
How bravely they fought in defense of the
land.